A Soldier in the West

A force of Creek and Seminole warriors emerged from rugged hills in Indian Territory and fanned out across frozen Texas ground on Christmas Day 1861. They formed a long line and watched, quietly from a distance, as newly arrived Confederate soldiers pitched tents and organized camp in the bitter cold.

An officer on horseback confronted the warriors: Maj. George Washington Chilton of the Third Texas Cavalry. A 33-year-old honey-tongued secessionist, “Chilton was over six feet tall, and was straight as an Indian,” according to Pvt. A.W. Sparks. “Graceful in gesture, witty and eloquent in delivery, he captured his audience, and at will could bring forth tears or laughter.”

Octavo Corp. and the Warnock LibraryChief Opothleyahola, from the 1842 book, “History of The Indian Tribes of North America, Vol. II,” by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall.

The current predicament in which Chilton and his command found themselves was no laughing matter: The Creeks and Seminoles sympathized with the Union, commanded by a longtime federal ally, Chief Opothleyahola. And the warriors had reason to be suspicious of the Southerners: Chilton and his troops were part of a force commanded by Col. James McIntosh, a West Pointer and former frontier fighter with a brother who wore federal blue, on a campaign to subdue pro-Union Native Americans and gain influence in the region.

Chilton rode out about halfway toward them and motioned with hand signals for one warrior to approach him. The “request was immediately complied with,” Sparks reported. “The Indians refused to speak the American language, by which token Major Chilton was soon convinced that they were hostiles, and abandoned the conference; whereupon, the silent cavalcade as mysteriously disappeared in the mountains as it had appeared.”

But rising smoke from campfires in the nearby mountains indicated that the warriors were not in retreat, as some believed. They were positioned along the rocky slope of a craggy hill and ready for action.

The next day, Dec. 26, McIntosh formed a line of battle comprised of cavalry with an infantry support. Chilton and his men occupied the center. All advanced across the rough terrain. “Slowly the command marches to the very base of the last elevation, and the enemy’s sharpshooters are commencing to fire,” Sparks recalled. “A thousand frenzied yells reply, as a thousand excited horses plunge madly up the steep ascent, and a thousand rifles pour such a leaden hail into the ranks of the astounded and terrified Indians, that no effort is made to hold the works, and the victory is won ere the battle had fairly begun.”

The triumphant Confederates named the engagement for a nearby mountain stream known as Chustenahlah. The defeated Creek and Seminole warriors fled with their families, a trek that took a fearful toll on the Native Americans as they struggled across Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) into Kansas in the dead of winter.

According to Sparks, the Confederates captured 250 women and children, 40 to 50 individuals of African descent, and a sizable inventory of animals, supplies and trinkets. One unique item caught his attention: a silver medal dated 1694 that commemorated a peace treaty between the Creek Nation and the British Government. “What became of this souvenir, the author knows not; but hopes it has been returned, ere this, to its original owners.”

The Confederates suffered few casualties. Chilton, “while acting with conspicuous gallantry, was wounded by a rifle-ball, slightly, in the head; but, disregarding which, he remained at his post until the last gun was fired,” Sparks said.

Kentucky-born Chilton often found himself in the center of the action. His father, Thomas Chilton, was a Baptist minister and attorney who served a stint in the House of Representatives and helped frontier legend Davy Crockett write his autobiography. The elder Chilton eventually made his way with his family from Kentucky to Alabama and finally Texas. Chilton followed in his father’s footsteps and studied law; he served in a cavalry company during the Mexican War before settling in Tyler, Tex., in the northeast corner of the state.

Chilton soon became active in politics as a Democrat. When called upon to speak, his simple, conversational manner stood in stark contrast to fiery stump-speakers who blasted their audience with flowery oratory. His handsome looks were talked of openly and caused Texas belles to blush. But Chilton was also an aggressive and militaristic man with a hot temper.

An outspoken pro-slavery zealot, he owned five slaves. Their ages and gender as reported in a federal census slave schedule suggest he kept a family: A 35-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman, along with three children ages 4 to 16. Like many Southerners, Chilton believed that slavery for blacks was a better life than that of barbarism in Africa. There is no question that he agreed with Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens’ pronouncement that the fledgling government’s “foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.” Indeed, Chilton belonged to the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret organization dedicated to not only protecting the slaveocracy, but expanding it southward into an empire of servitude.

After the war broke out, Chilton turned his notable energies toward recruiting. “The promptness and dispatch with which this gentleman responded to the late call for men, is worthy of the genuine soldier,” reported the Dallas Herald. Chilton “raised 100 men and marched 120 miles — all within the space of six days! This is unparalleled, we believe, in the history of volunteer armies. The genius of the man, leads him to promptness, and his energy will ensure success.” Chilton and his volunteers joined the Third Texas Cavalry. The rank and file elected staff officers, a common practice in both armies. They voted Chilton major.

Following the success at Chustenahlah, the Confederates retired to the Arkansas outpost of Van Buren for the winter. Sparks related that “Major Chilton munificently ‘stood treat,’ and purchased a barrel of choice whisky, which the boys of the regiment disposed of by drinking frequent ‘potations pottle deep,’ and all got as merry as merry could be, and many didn’t get home till morning, and some, only after the lapse of two or three days; but, in the case of these latter, whether their absence was attributable to the effects of Arkansaw corn-juice, or to Arkansaw belles, deponent sayeth not.”

Chustenahlah was the high water mark of Chilton’s army service. In May 1862, five months after the battle, the regiment reorganized after its original one-year enlistment expired. Chilton was not re-elected major and left the army. But he returned in 1863 as captain and ordnance officer on the staff of Brig. Gen. Hamilton Bee. He spent most of the rest of the war in Texas, away from frontline fighting.

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An incident in early 1863 tarnished his military career. During the night of March 14, he led about 150 troopers on an unauthorized manhunt for three Texans who remained loyal to the Union and served in the federal First Texas Cavalry. Chilton and his detachment crossed international borders into Mexico and captured all three soldiers, lynching one of them, William W. Montgomery.

The well-traveled British observer Lt. Col. Arthur Freemantle saw Montgomery’s corpse shortly after he arrived in Texas. “He has been slightly buried, but his head and arms were above the ground, his arms tied together, the rope still round his neck, but part of it still dangling from quite a small mesquite tree,” he noted in his journal on April 2. “Dogs or wolves had probably scraped the earth from the body, and there was no flesh on the bones. I obtained this my first experience of lynch law within three hours of landing in America.” Word of the incursion and hanging made its way to Mexican authorities. They protested the act, and Chilton received a stern rebuke.

He remained in uniform until July 1865, when he signed an oath of allegiance to the federal government. Texans elected Chilton to Congress in 1866, though the Radical Republicans, who ran the majority, denied Chilton and the rest of the state delegation their seats as punishment for the war.

Meanwhile, the Radicals resolved to investigate Montgomery’s death as a murder. The incident had become wildly exaggerated, including an allegation that Chilton had ordered the head and right arm of the victim cut off and sent home as a war trophy.

The Montgomery lynching haunted Chilton for the rest of his days. He turned to alcohol and went on periodic binges. He died in 1884 at age 56, survived by his wife, daughter, and son, Horace, a future senator.

Sources: Allison W. Sparks, “The War Between the States, as I Saw It”; Fort Worth (Texas) Morning Register, Sept. 3, 1899; Joseph J. Arpad, Ed., “A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee”; Eugene C. Barker, “The African Slave Trade in Texas,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly; Texas Library and Historical Commission, Journal of the Secession Convention of Texas 1861; The Standard (Clarksville, Texas), March 30, 1861; Dallas Herald, June 19, 1861; 1860 Slave Schedules, Federal Census, National Archives and Records Service; Samuel B. Barron, “The Lone Star Defenders: A Chronicle of the Third Texas Cavalry”; George W. Chilton military service record, National Archives and Records Service; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Vicki Betts, “Private and Amateur Hangings: The Lynching of W.W. Montgomery, March 15, 1863,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly; Tyler (Texas) Reporter, April 16, 1863; Walter Lord, Ed., “The Freemantle Diary”; Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Thirty-Ninth Congress.

Ronald S. Coddington is the author of “Faces of the Civil War” and “Faces of the Confederacy.” His forthcoming book profiles the lives of men of color who participated in the Civil War. He writes “Faces of War,” a column for the Civil War News.

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